How to Care for a Hatchling
by BlueStar29
Summary: Hiccup accidentally makes a wish when a shooting star passes by. The Next morning he wakes up to a baby Night Fury staring him in the face.
1. Chapter 1

_This is just a thing I came up with a while ago. I wasn't really going t write it, but I'm having trouble starting the next chapter of Bittersweet Reunion. So I thought I'd give this a try, see if it makes things easier. Don't know if I'll continue it, I'll just have to see how I feel._

* * *

**Chapter 1: The Wish**

* * *

It was a clear twilight evening on Berk. Hiccup sighed as he leaned back against the scaly side of his dragon, Toothless. The Night Fury snuggly wrapped the length of his body around the boy while the tip of his tail lay in said boy's lap.

The two had spent the whole afternoon flying together with no real destination in mind. Soon the need for food and rest was felt. So they fished and found a nice high cliff to eat and enjoy the view. Toothless had just finished off his pile while Hiccup had already downed the two that he had caught. He decided that they both needed to digest before they had to head back to the village.

From a nearby cliff, Hiccup heard some chirping sounds. He looked over to see four baby Deadly Nadders playfully fighting with each other. A smile reached his lips.

"Aww …" He continued to watch them.

Toothless raised his head, curious as to what had provoked his pet human to emit such a sound. He followed Hiccup's line of sight over to the Nadder hatchlings and his eyes narrowed in irritation. The grown dragon growled softly and rolled his eyes.

He hated hatchlings. They were incisively annoying and their parents were always nothing short of hostile. Not to mention that in Toothless' eyes, if a dragon could not stand up for itself than there was no point in keeping it alive. Of course that last remark probably stemmed from his own, rather horrid, hatchling-hood.

From a very early age, Toothless had to raise himself. He could not remember his parents—or if he even had any, for that matter. All he remembered was falling; and then he was on his own.

No one taught him to be a dragon. He just picked up on it himself. He had watched other dragons and mimicked their behavior. His personal traits as a Night Fury were discovered and developed as he grew. When he was sure that he was strong enough, he joined the others in raids against the humans, assuming that was what he was expected to do.

It was not until his encounter with Hiccup that changed everything. At the time, he had not known what to do with the human. So he let it go. As their bond grew, Toothless did not know what to do. He had never really had anyone in his life that actually cared for him. Which brought him back to his original thoughts on why he hated hatchlings so much. On some level he knew it was jealousy over the fact that they had parents to care for them the way that he had never experienced.

A sigh from Hiccup brought the dragon from his thoughts.

"Aren't they cute?"

Toothless looked at the Nadder hatchlings again. He emitted an unenthused groan.

Hiccup looked at the black dragon in bewilderment. "Oh come on, haven't you ever thought of having babies?"

Toothless' ears flattened against his head. His eyes narrowed in a dry look that suggested to Hiccup that the Night Fury was thinking "stupid" about him. Before the boy could ask what the problem was, a massive one-finned tail bopped him on the head.

"Ow!"

Hiccup rubbed his head, but did not scold. He had learned long ago that a tail-bash to the head was Toothless' way of saying, "quit acting stupid!" It took a moment for the auburn-haired teenage Viking to figure out why he deserved a head bash, anyway. Then it hit him.

"Oh yeah … I guess it would be pretty hard to have babies if you're the only Night Fury."

Another groan came from Toothless, who kept looking at his rider with the obvious expression of "duh."

Hiccup sighed and settled back against his best friend. Thinking the conversation was over, Toothless laid his head back down and closed his eyes for a bit.

"I wonder what you were like as a baby."

The big black dragon groaned again in annoyance. Apparently Hiccup decided to drag this subject out.

"I bet you were cute."

This time Toothless snapped his head up with a snarl. Hiccup chuckled and flinched at the same time, holding his hands up in defense.

"Just a joke Bud, calm down. Okay, note to self: never call you cute."

Toothless grunted in a grumpy way. The teenager laughed again and pet the dragon on the head to atone for that remark.

"Guess I'll never see a baby Night Fury. But I wish I knew what you were like when you were younger." Toothless rolled his eyes again.

The dragon was glad that he was not a hatchling anymore. Even only at the age of two-hundred and fifty—which was the equivalent to Hiccup's age in human years—he was young, yes, but he was grateful to be fully grown and not in the hatchling stage anymore.

He looked over to Hiccup, whose eyes were starting to droop. A whole afternoon of flying could take a lot out of even the most experienced dragon, so it was no surprise that the human was tiring out. Toothless stood up and nudged the human, signaling that it was time to go.

"You're right, Toothless. We should get home; it's getting dark." The boy reached for the flying equipment that he had earlier dismantled in order to make Toothless more comfortable. After it was all securely in place, he climbed onto the saddle. "I would love to see a baby Night Fury. I wish I could see one, just to know what it would be like."

Toothless snorted. Most times he could block the little human out while he was ranting. He would just let Hiccup talk. As long as he was putting the flying equipment together, the dragon was fine with letting the boy talk to—and sometimes answer—himself.

"Okay, Bud. Let's go home. Oh, look!"

A shining object in the sky flew across the horizon. "A shooting star. Guess I should make a wish, but knowing my luck I know it'll never come true. So why bother?" The duo then took off for the village.

Unbeknownst to them, a small twinkle in the sky shined as they left.

* * *

The next morning, Hiccup was reluctant to get up. It was hard getting rid of the last bit of sleep from his eyes. But something was nudging his cheek. The boy groaned and swatted at it in annoyance.

"Stop …" he mumbled.

The nudging persisted and even grew in fierceness. He thought that it was just Toothless playing one of the games that he playing in the morning to wake the teenager up—the favorite begin the one where his nose was tickled by the dragon's tail fin until he sneezed.

"Toothless, go back to bed …"

Suddenly a high-pitched chirp reached his ears. Hiccup's emerald eyes snapped open. He was fully awake now. That chirp was right in front of him. He slowly moved his gaze to his chest.

There, he was met with two very large, very _young_ peridot eyes staring back at him. They were attached to a tiny black dragon. The wings were only about a foot in diameter and rounded at the edges. The spikes along its back were also rounded. The little dragon wagged its single finned tail and chirped happily.

Hiccup just continued to stare in shock, trying to keep his panic in check.

* * *

Down on the first floor of the house, Stoic the Vast was gathering the materials that he would need for the long day ahead of him. He had so much to do. Being chief was no easy task.

"**DAAAAAD!**"

The scream startled Stoic so badly that he threw his materials into the air. They each landed on the floor with a loud clang. One even landed on his big, Viking head, almost dislodging his helmet.

Before the large man could demand to know what was going on his son came running down the stairs, panting and his eyes wide with shock.

"Hiccup, what's wrong?" The boy continued to hyperventilate uncontrollably. Stoic had to hold him by his narrow shoulders to get him to calm down. "Easy, Son. Tell me what's goin' on."

"D-dad … it's-it's Toothless! H-He's a—he's a—"

"He's a what?! What is it, Son?" Stoic was starting to lose his temper (and it was only early morning).

He's a **BABY**!" The boy held up his hands. Cupped in them was a tiny black dragon. The little black dragon chirped.

* * *

Stoic had Hiccup sit down at the table so that he did not faint from panic. They both watched as the tiny dragon on the table chased his injured tail. The action would have been cute if Hiccup was not so overtaken by shock at the time.

"How did this happen?" Stoic asked, eyes never leaving the hatchling on the table.

Hiccup shrugged. "I don't know. I just woke up and he was like this."

Toothless played with a plate on the table. He almost fell off the edge and Hiccup had to hold him to get him to settle down. The little dragon made his way out of Hiccup's arms and chirped angrily at the plate. He blew a little spark of white fire at it and pounced around it, expecting it to fight back.

Suddenly Hiccup's eyes widened as a thought came to him. "Uh oh …"

"What?"

"Last night, I was watching some baby Nadders and thought about what a baby Night Fury would be like."

"So?"

"So … I sorta … wished to know what Toothless was like as a baby."

Stoic rubbed his head. "Just wishin' somethin' doesn't make it come true."

Hiccup rubbed his arm. This would have been so much easier if he was not so prone to trouble. "Yeah well … there was kind of … a shooting star passing by … so …"

Stoic sighed. Of course something weird like this would happen because of Hiccup.

"Hiccup, why would ya do that?" His voice held a "you should know better" tone to it.

Hiccup threw his arms at his side. "Well how was I supposed to know it'd come true?!"

Toothless had made his way back into his rider's thin arms and pawed at the red bangs that hung in his eyes. The boy kept trying to stop the dragon hatchling from playing with his hair.

"So what are ya gonna do with 'im?" The big man asked.

"I guess I'll just have to take care of him until we can figure out how to get him back to normal." He began scratching Toothless under the chin, earning a purr from the little dragon. But instead of the low, grumbling purr he usually had, it was now more of a squeaking purr.

Stoic's eyes widened. "You?" Total shock was in his voice.

Hiccup ceased his petting and starred at his father with disbelief. What was so shocking about that? "Why not?"

"Well, Hiccup … you're … well, you."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

Stoic cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck, trying to find a nice way of voicing his thoughts to his sensitive son. "Son, you can barely keep yourself out o' trouble for very long. It's usually Toothless that gets you out o' it. I don't think having you, of all people, being in charge of a … baby," he gestured to Toothless, "is such a good idea …" Okay, so maybe that was a little blunt, but Hiccup needed to hear it.

The cold glare from those emerald eyes was strong. Hiccup was used to his father pointing out his stupid mistakes but this was a new low. "Thanks, Dad. Glad to know where I stand with you …" He sarcastically replied.

Stoic sighed again. "What I mean is that you're still a kid yourself. Taking care of a baby is a big responsibility—dragon or not." Now the tone in the man's voice was different. It went from awkward bluntness to one filled with experience. At this, Hiccup's stare softened a bit. He could tell that his father was only trying to give him some advice from experience.

"I know, but he's been an adult before."

"But he's not now."

"I can take care of him, Dad."

Stoic knew that he was not going to win this one. Nothing he said was going to change this boy's mind. "Fine. But he's _your_ responsibility. Anything he does is on _your_ hands." He said, pointing a thick finger at the teenager.

Hiccup shrugged "Nothing new there."

Stoic's gaze left him fro a second before quickly returning. "Oh, I think it will be." He then pointed past his son.

Hiccup's eyes followed his father's finger. He gasped at what he saw and ran to fix it. Somehow Toothless had crept out of Hiccup's lap and was tangled in a fishing net. When he saw Hiccup coming to free him, he screeched and chirped for the human to hurry up.

"Toothless, no! How did you manage to do this?!" Hiccup fiddled with the net, trying to untie the knots that Toothless had made around himself.

Stoic just chuckled and brought his cup of ale to his lips. "Oh this outta be interestin'."

* * *

_End of Chapter_


	2. Dealing with a Baby Toothless

_Thought I'd go ahead and continue this since everyone seems to like it so much._

* * *

**Chapter 2: Dealing with a Baby Toothless**

* * *

On the other side of the village, Berk's five other teenagers waited for Hiccup in the arena. Astrid casually leaned against her Deadly Nadder, Stormfly. She began cleaning under her fingernails, obviously bored. Snotlout practiced throwing an axe at a random pole. Fishlegs read and reread the Book of Dragons, looking for any errors to correct. The twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, fought with each other … enough said.

Astrid huffed in an annoyed manner. "Where's Hiccup? It's not like him to be late." She kept gazing at the position of the sun, checking to see how much time had passed. They had been waiting about forty-five minutes.

"Maybe Toothless finally got annoyed with him—like the rest of us—and ate him." Snotlout said, laughing and picturing what a scene that would have been. A sudden punch to the nose caused him to fall to the ground. "Ow! Hey!" He complained, holding his nose.

"Don't you even _kid_ about a thing like that!" The blonde girl hissed dangerously through her teeth. Snotlout put his hands up in surrender.

Just then all five teenagers turned to the entrance when Hiccup came running in, panting heavily. "Sorry … I'm late …" He managed to say in between breaths. The skinny boy leaned down on his knees in order to try and catch his breath. Around his right shoulder, falling down to his left hip was his trusty satchel.

Astrid did not know whether to punch him for being late or be relieved that he finally showed up. She decided to do both. Upon reaching him, Astrid harshly punched Hiccup in his upper left arm.

"Ow!"

"Where have you been? We've been waiting for you forever," Astrid put her hands on her hips and glared at him in a sassy way. She looked around, expecting the little twig to be followed by the large black mass of his dragon. "and where's Toothless?"

"Uh … funny you should ask …" Hiccup answered with an awkward smile. He was about to calmly explain the situation to his friends, and advise them not to scream, when a little black scaly head with large green eyes popped up from within the satchel. It emitted a small squeak when it did.

The Viking teens all gasped in surprise.

"AHH! A RAT! A RAT!" Tuffnut yelled. He hid behind his sister, quivering like a coward.

"It's not a rat, it's Toothless."

Snotlout squinted his eyes. "Okay, I know Toothless is short, but this is ridiculous. You expect me to believe that this is your dragon?"

Hiccup sighed and pulled the little black bundle out of his bag, telling him that it was okay and that he would not let anything hurt him. Once the auburn haired Viking had the baby dragon in his hands, he held up the one-finned tail tip as proof.

"Yep, it's Toothless alright." Snotlout confirmed.

Fishlegs walked up, trying to get a better look. "How did this happen?"

Hiccup had a hard time answering his friend's question because Toothless was being quite rambunctious. He kept climbing all over Hiccup's head and then from one shoulder to the other. He even fell back into the satchel. Hiccup had given up on trying to keep him still.

"Well, last night I saw a shooting star and … well, you know … then this morning he was like this."

"You made a wish on a shooting star for Toothless to be a baby?!" Astrid asked, the tone in her voice increasing in volume from her anger. She expected Hiccup to be more responsible than that. Granted, it was a freak accident, but nonetheless.

Said auburn haired boy flinched. "W-well in my defense, I didn't know about the star when I actually made the wish …" This did not help his cause.

Suddenly and without warning, Toothless leaped from the hop of Hiccup's head onto Astrid's face, sending her back a few steps. He chirped in excitement. She mumbled something that sounded like, "get him off me!"

"Toothless no!" The baby dragon looked back at Hiccup and did not see Astrid reach up and tug him off of her face by his tail. Toothless chirped and screeched, literally kicking and screaming to be put down. Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins all laughed loudly. Since Hiccup was right in front of the strong girl he tried to contain his laughter, having to bite his bottom lip in order to achieve that goal. "Really wish I knew what was going on in that little head that made him do that."

Astrid glanced at the little dragon that she still held by the tail, then back up to his trainer and glared. "No more wishes for you!"

Hiccup's shoulder slunk as he accepted his dragon back.

* * *

Normal training for that day was not going to happen for Hiccup. While the others all practiced attacks and strategy moves, Hiccup had planned to use this opportunity to document a page in the Book for baby Night Furies. It was proving to be more of a hassle than necessary.

"Toothless, come back here! Give me back my charcoal!" Hiccup had been sitting down on the ground trying to sketch his baby dragon as fast as he could—since the Night Fury was too hyper to sit still for even a few seconds—when a little black blur literally flew past his head. The next thing he knew, Toothless was running around the arena with the charcoal in his mouth.

Hiccup wove his way into the paths of the others, interrupting their training as he tried to catch little Toothless.

"Hey you little twerp! You get back here!" Snotlout yelled, angry that Toothless and Hiccup had disturbed his training.

He joined Hiccup in his pursuit of Toothless, who seemed to be even faster as a baby than as a full-grown adult. He may have only been as big as Hiccup's forearm, but those little legs could move like lightning!

Seeing the chase, Ruff and Tuff joined in, just for kicks. Fishlegs tried to block Toothless' path, but the baby Night Fury just ran under his legs, causing the twins to topple over him.

Toothless' young mind saw this as a game. He took Hiccup's charcoal because he wanted his rider to play with him. Now he had all the humans playing with him. It was so much fun! He looked behind him to see if they were right behind him and did not watch where he was going, when he suddenly crashed into something. Toothless looked up to see Astrid with her hands on her hips and an angry look on her face. She bent over a little bit to tower over the baby dragon.

"Toothless, sit!" She pointed a finger at him. Without looking away from her, the baby obeyed. "Now drop the charcoal!" She commanded with a stern voice. With a whine, Toothless did as he was told.

The other teenagers—Hiccup included—all stared, jaws practically on the ground. It was amazing! Toothless only ever listened to Hiccup—and that was only if he was feeling particularly generous. The blonde girl picked Toothless up and held him in her arms. She must have felt the stares of her friends because she looked up. "What?"

"How did you do that? I've been trying to get him to listen to me all day." Hiccup said.

Astrid shrugged and walked over to him. "Eh, I just used the same tactic I use with my two-year-old cousin. Kids are kids, no matter what they are." She pet Toothless on the head, earning that squeaky purr from him. "You just gotta show 'em who's boss." She handed the hatchling back to his rider.

Hiccup smiled and sat Toothless onto a small table. He and Fishlegs were finally going to document traits of baby Night Furies. Toothless was a little anxious. He looked so tense as if he really wanted to get off of that table and go hide into one of the little cracks on the wall, that he had just figured out that he can hide in now. He did not like being crowded like this.

"Okay Toothless, let's see those wings of yours." The little black dragon tilted his head and blinked his eyes in a confused manner. Hiccup extended his arms and moved them up and down. "You know …" His only response was another blink.

"Like this!" Fishlegs grabbed ahold of one of the little black, leathery wings and extended them.

To say that Toothless was less than thrilled was an understatement. He let out an impossibly loud, high-pitched screech in terror. He then spat a spark the thick hand that held his wing.

"Ouch!" Fishlegs yelled, blowing on his finger.

With his wing now free, Toothless jumped into Hiccup's arms. He quivered uncontrollably.

This action was almost too cute. Astrid had to turn away to hide her laughter.

"Toothless, it's okay. You know that Fishlegs won't hurt you." Hiccup said, trying to comfort the baby dragon. He pet the hatchling's wings. "Why are you so scared?"

"The point of view must really be different from that of an adult to a baby." Fishlegs suggested, still trying to get the feeling back in his fingers.

Hiccup tried to put Toothless down, but the little Night Fury just screeched and clawed at his chest, clearly telling the boy that he was going nowhere. "Toothless, stop that!"

The little black dragon flapped his wings rapidly. Fed up, Hiccup stepped away from the table and rocked the baby dragon in his arms. "It's okay; nothing's gonna hurt you." Toothless still shook, but stopped screeching. The rocking and petting seemed to sooth the little dragon. Soon the quivering stopped all together. "There we go." Hiccup was finally able to put Toothless down on the ground. He decided that he wanted to get one more sketch of Toothless before they called it quits for the day.

Suddenly, a loud roar was heard from behind him. The teenage Viking turned around to see little Toothless running in and out of the legs of the large Monstrous Nightmare, Hookfang. "Oh no Toothless, not Hookfang!" The auburn haired boy ran towards the dragons, determined to prevent the catastrophe he knew would be coming.

Hookfang roared loudly and tried to stomp on the small dragon that was beginning to irk him. Toothless ran between the legs and tail of the large orange dragon. Hiccup could swear that the sounds that Toothless made when Hookfang missed him sounded like laughter. He groaned to himself in exasperation. He ran his fingers through his hair and prepared for any burns that Hookfang may give him.

* * *

That evening, Hiccup was so tired from the long day—then the long walk home, Astrid refused to give him a ride—that he practically dragged himself up to his bed and plopped down in it. He was so tired that he forgot to take Toothless out of the satchel. The little dragon made his way out of the bag and onto Hiccup's chest, trying to nudge him to get up.

"Just a few minutes, Toothless …" Hiccup pleaded.

Toothless was having none of that. He was hungry and wanted food now. He huffed a few time in Hiccup's hair, but received no response. He than chirped in his rider's ear, but that just made Hiccup rub the ear. This was getting on Toothless' nerves. He wanted food. Taking the opportunity, Toothless bit Hiccup's nose, holding on with a strong grip.

"OOOWW!" Hiccup tried to pull Toothless off but the hatchling would not let go. "Toothless! Let go!" Finally he did let go, but jumped and chirped until the boy got the message that Toothless was hungry. "Ugh, okay, okay. Let's get you something to eat."

The excitement of Toothless' transformation was too great for both Hiccup and Toothless that morning. So much so that both had forgotten to eat. Hiccup was surprised that Toothless had not demanded food earlier.

The baby dragon was too little to go down the stairs without tripping over his own feet, so Hiccup carried him. Once the two were down on the lower level of the house, Hiccup reached for a fish from an earlier catch and put it in a bowl on the floor. "Here you go, Toothless." With that finished, Hiccup had every intention of going back upstairs to the comfy bed that seemed to be calling his name. That is … until that familiar chirp—which was really starting to get on his nerves—stopped him. "What?!" The teenager whined.

Toothless sat down in front of the bowl with the fish in it and looked from his rider to it and back to him.

Hiccup shrugged. "What? I gave you food. Now eat."

Toothless chirped angrily and looked at the fish again. Hiccup studied the scene and noticed that the fish was actually a little bit bigger than Toothless. There was no way he could eat it in one gulp the way he normally would. Hiccup groaned, slapping his hand on his head. He had completely forgotten that baby dragons had to have their mothers eat the food first than regurgitate it so that the babies could swallow it whole. Well Hiccup did not have the ability to do that, so there was only one thing to do: mash up the fish. So that was exactly what he did. It grossed the teenager out to no end.

* * *

Hiccup wanted nothing more than to just sleep. But he had promised Fishlegs that he would at least try to add something to the new Baby Night Fury page to the Book of Dragons. Even though he was really tired, the boy still enjoyed watching the little hatchling play.

He smiled as he sat by the side of his bed and watched Toothless wrestle with a ball of twine that Hiccup just happened to have lying around. The ball was bigger than the dragon's head, yet he still insisted on pouncing on it. It was so funny when Toothless would pounce onto the ball of twine, and then it would roll out from under him. Sometimes Toothless became fed up and would spit a spark of fire at it. Then Hiccup would have to make sure that the twine did not burst into flames. After a while Toothless began unraveling the twine from the ball, managing to get tangled up in it. Hiccup had a good laugh at that.

Finally exhaustion became too much and Hiccup could not fight it any longer. "Okay, Bud. Time for bed."

Without even thinking twice about it Hiccup blew out the candle and climbed under the covers, expecting Toothless to make it to his own bed. Then a chirp roused him again. Sighing, Hiccup looked over the edge of the bed to see Toothless looking at him with those big peridot eyes. He seemed to know what the baby wanted and firmly shook his head.

"Oh no, nuh-uh! You are **not** sleeping in my bed!"

Toothless whined and softly chirped in a pleading way.

"Toothless, no! You have your own bed!" _Which he can probably get lost in …_ He thought sarcastically. Toothless whined again and began scratching at the bedpost. Hiccup knew he was a sucker for giving in, but that pleading tone and those big eyes could not be ignored. "Fine …"

Hiccup scooped up the little dragon and set him down on the bed. "There; happy now?" Toothless responded by circling in a comfortable spot beside Hiccup's chest and instantly falling asleep. This action caused all the annoyance that Hiccup had felt to disappear.

The boy pet the hatchling on his head and sighed. "You are a handful. But I was right," a loving smile crossed his lips, "you are cute."

* * *

**End of Chapter**


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